Stormwater Pollution

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Protecting Our Water Supplies

Water pollution degrades surface waters making them unsafe for drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities. As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States.

Point Sources

Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters.

Administration

In most cases, the NPDES permit program is administered by authorized states. Since its introduction in 1972, the NPDES permit program is responsible for significant improvements to our Nation's water quality. For questions regarding NPDES, contact:

Upper Gulf Coast Oyster Waters

Explaination from TCEQ on the reason for the addition of the segments: "The original TMDL document covered all or part of six of the segments in the Galveston Bay system (2421, 2422, 2423, 2424, 2432, and 2439). However, based on more recent 303(d) lists (and the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) shellfish harvesting maps that they use to list these water bodies), several other bays or parts of bays also need to be addressed.

A couple of other segments have also been added the 303(d) list for impaired oyster waters use. This one is a little more complicated in that it only covers parts of two other segments. In the case of 2433OW (Bastrop Bay/Oyster Lake), the DSHS advisory only pertains to Oyster Lake, which is Assessment Unit 02 by the TCEQ definition.

For the other segment, 2434OW (Christmas Bay), the advisory only pertains to the small assessment 01 adjacent to West Bay. Of course, implementation activities will focus on bacteria sources throughout the bay system and its watershed, so perhaps that level of detail isn't critical for the I-Plan. As a group, these segments have no permitted dischargers, which will simplify matters as well."